Online new year’s threats prompt Australian arrest

Australian counter-terror officers arrested a 40-year-old man at Sydney Airport, after he disembarked from a flight from London, and charged him with making online threats “relating to New Year’s Eve” festivities in Sydney, police said Friday.

The arrest follows police raids across the southern city of Melbourne a week ago, which authorities said foiled an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack prominent sites in the city Christmas Eve.

Damien O’Neil was arrested late Thursday and refused bail by a court Friday. He was charged under criminal laws relating to suicide or encouraging suicide, not terrorism laws, police said in a statement. Police did not reveal his nationality.

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